Braving the heat and the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, an estimated 71.79% of the 6,28,69,955 eligible voters in Tamil Nadu turned out to exercise their franchise for the Assembly election on Tuesday. The fate of the candidates from the 234 Assembly constituencies and the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha constituency, where a bypoll was held, was sealed at 7 p.m. when polling concluded.
The figure of 71.79% is provisional and might be revised upwards on Wednesday, after numbers are consolidated. Barring a few stray incidents of scuffles across Tamil Nadu, voting was peaceful.
Led by Kallakurichi district at 78%, a total of 24 districts of the 37 recorded a voter turnout of over 70%. A few more districts such as Kancheepuram, the Nilgiris and Nagapattinam bordered around 69%, which might go up on Wednesday.
Chennai had the lowest turnout among all districts, at just 59.40%, while adjoining Chengalpattu followed at 62.77%.
The Election Commission of India did not immediately provide data on how many male and female voters exercised their franchise or data on the constituency-wise turnout.
Compared to elections in the last two decades, the turnout in 2021 was the third highest. In 2016, the turnout was 74.81% and in 2011 78.01% — the highest ever in Tamil Nadu’s electoral history. In 2006, when the DMK formed a minority government with outside support from allies, the polling percentage was 70.82%, while 2001 saw the lowest turnout at 59.07%.
In dramatic scenes necessitated by the pandemic in the last hour at 6 p.m., polling personnel wore PPE kits, as infected persons turned up to vote wearing PPE kits.
DMK MP Kanimozhi, who contracted the virus and is being treated at a private hospital in Chennai, came to her polling booth wearing a PPE kit, a mask and a face shield, a little after 6 p.m. and cast her vote.
AIADMK presidium chairman E. Madhusudhanan too visited his polling booth in Old Washermenpet, flanked by medical personnel, and cast his vote.
Data on the number of persons affected by COVID-19 who exercised their franchise in the last hour was not immediately available, Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu Satyabrata Sahoo said.
Mr. Sahoo said so far no re-polling had been ordered at any booth in the State. A scrutiny will be held on Wednesday at 11 a.m. with presiding officers, observers and parties, and if any issue arises, it will be flagged to the ECI, which will then take a decision on re-poll, if any, he said.
A total of 174 ballot units, 134 control units and 559 VVPAT units were replaced due to malfunction. Mr. Sahoo said less than 1% of the total EVMs were affected.
He also lauded voters for coming to cast their votes, taking precautions against COVID-19.
There will be a total of 75 counting centres for votes to be counted, and three-tier security will be provided at the EVM strong rooms, he said. The first layer will be that of CAPF personnel, with the State police forming the second. CCTV cameras in the strong rooms will keep an eye on the rooms at all times, he said.
